The invention pertains to the field of video game controls, and, more particularly, to the field of video game controls which are pressure rather than location sensitive.
In prior art video game technology, various control mechanisms were used to control action in the game. Some prior art games involved a simulated vehicle moving in a simulated environment and had steering wheels, gas pedals, brake pedals and gearshift controls for the simulated vehicle. These prior art game controls, however, were used to control the game by virtue of the position of the control, as opposed to how strongly or softly the player was pushing on the control. For certain situations, such a game control is a fairly realistic simulation of a similar control in a real-life vehicle. However, for other situations, such as brake pedals and gearshift levers, such a control is not a realistic simulation. For example, in a real car, a brake pedal may travel a short distance with relatively small but growing resistance to its movement. Thereafter, the resistance to movement of the brake pedal increases substantially more rapidly, to the point where the brake pedal can hardly be moved at all. Furthermore, the harder the operator presses on the brake pedal, the more braking action will occur, although the brake pedal will not move other than perhaps a small fraction of an inch. Heretofore game controls of the position-sensing variety were not able to realistically simulate such a control device. Therefore, a need has arisen for a new type of video game control device which is pressure sensitive and which generates an output signal which tracks the pressure applied to the control device even though the control device itself is not moving.